Isolation and antimicrobial resistance profile of Escherichia coli in raw camel milk and camel milk powder

The present study was conducted to isolate Escherichia coli from raw camel milk and camel milk powder samples and identify antimicrobial pattern. A total of 200 samples consisting of raw camel milk (n=100) and camel milk powder (n=100) were collected from National Research Centre on Camels, Bikaner (Rajasthan). Several biochemical tests (imvic, lactose, glucose, sorbitol, sucrose, etc.) were performed to confirm E. coli isolates using HiE. coliTM kits. Antibiotic resistance patterns in the Escherichia coli isolates were determined by the Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method against 12 antibiotics. Twenty eight isolates of Escherichia coli were found in the raw camel milk samples and 5 isolates of Escherichia coli were present in camel milk powder samples. The Escherichia coli isolates were highly resistant to penicillin-G (100%) followed by chloramphenicol (87.87%), amoxicillin (81.81%) and erythromycin (63.63%). This was possibly due to poor personal hygiene of the milker, camel health, environment, poor equipment sanitation, storage and transport conditions. The existence of multi-drug resistance points to take strict measures to diminish its prevalence and combat antimicrobial resistance in food animals.